Hendrick Motorsports will move forward without Alex Bowman in the playoffs after announcing that it will not appeal the No. 48 team's disqualification following the race at the Charlotte Roval.
The team issued a statement on Monday evening explaining the decision.
"NASCAR allows a clear margin to account for the difference in pre- and post-race weight," the statement said. "After a thorough review by our team and the sanctioning body, we simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement.
"Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable. We are extremely disappointed to lose a playoff spot under these circumstances and apologize to our fans and partners."
This decision to not appeal means that the Round of 8 lineup is official. Joey Logano will advance in the Cup Series playoffs while Bowman will finish the season no better than ninth in the final standings.
Bowman finished last weekend's race inside the top 20. He didn't contend for the win, but he won the second stage of the road course race and put himself in the next round of the playoffs on points.
The situation completely changed hours after Kyle Larson took the checkered flag to win his sixth race of the season. NASCAR announced that the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had failed post-race inspection. The car was too light.
"As we were running (the cars) through, unfortunately, the 48 had an issue," series director Brad Moran told media members at the NASCAR hauler on Sunday night. "It did not meet minimum weight, so we put the car to the side and continued on (with inspection).
"We did give (the No. 48 team) the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the water system and add water. So, we give them every opportunity to make minimum weight, we run them back through. Unfortunately, they were light again.
"They are allowed a 0.5% weight break, which is for usage of fluids and so on. That's about 17 pounds. We backed the car back off the scales, ran it back on, and then, unfortunately, it was the same weight. So the car had a weight issue. All the other cars cleared inspection. The 48 didn't, and that ends up in a disqualification."
